Running your business on a day-to-day basis is comprised of many different small decisions. While none of these decisions will make or break your business, they each can make a tremendous difference in how much time you have to get your "real" work done. An inefficiently designed work space or the wrong equipment can influence greatly how harried and tired you are in completing your primary work. For your office to run smoothly you need make have considered and put in place a good working plan for the following areas:
- office space
- office equipment
- production space
- production equipment
- daily managerial procedures
- suppliers
Given that you have done a thorough job on developing your business plan, you should have a clear idea of what equipment is needed to produce your product or service and should be able to arrange appropriate lease or purchase of that equipment. Remember to follow the procedures outlined in the managing risk step of the checklist, to assure yourself that you don't have unexpected shutdowns of production.
Production space needs will vary by what your business is, but should follow guidelines similar to those for choosing office space. Whether the office and production spaces are together or apart will be defined by the type of business and its requirements. An internet business that offers a service may have the production space and the office space be one and the same, whereas a landscaping business may have a nursery and storage area for large machinery in one location and the place that paperwork and billing is handled in another location. Whatever the configuration, the decisions outlined for choosing the right office space are applicable for determining the right space for any of your operations.
To open your doors you need to have some basic managerial procedures in place. These procedures include anything from mail services to good organization. To give business management the space and attention it needs, the next article in this series will be devoted to that topic alone. Since choosing suppliers is closely aligned with equipment purchases, we will examine the ins and outs of finding the right suppliers for your business more thoroughly here.
Not only is finding the right suppliers for everything from your office products to your production needs important since they can be a major factor in your costs, but forming the right type of relationship with those suppliers is critical. What is the follow-up going to be in terms of service? How are their accounts handled? Do they provide any special services such as restocking at regular intervals?
Additionally, you need to have backup plans should one of your suppliers all of a sudden go out of business or double its prices. It may not be critical if the paper for the xerox is a week late in arriving, but you will definitely be stressed if it is a product that is critical in your production process that is delayed. Keep a list of alternates in your file. You will not regret it. In fact, it wouldn't hurt to pull them out once a year and take a look at them in comparison to the suppliers you currently have. You might discover that changes have occurred that make one of your backups more attractive than your regular supplier. If nothing else, you may discover new products and/or possible relationships that could be useful in renegotiating supply relationships with the suppliers you currently have.
Now for the nitty gritty. Where do you find these suppliers? A good place to start are the professional and trade organizations for your product or service. For instance, if you have a sports-related product, there are numerous sports associations that suppliers also belong to. You will find many, many resources for supplies advertised in the magazines, publications, and on the websites for these organizations.
